Ten artists who have taken the quandaries of location, location, location to heart exhibited works at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis this spring and summer in a stimulating group show curated by Mel Watkin. Terra Incognita included the luscious works-on-paper of Nina Bovasso -- bright abstractions that could be construed as plots of a psychedelic township -- and Julie Mehretu, whose sharp-edged marks on canvas contain both attraction and menace. Kathy Prendergast had the best one-liner of the show, a map of America titled "Lost," with only places with the word "lost" in their name mapped out. Lordy Rodriguez makes maps of places that at first are recognizable, but then a shape that looks like the lower peninsula of Michigan has stenciled across it "New York."
Our best-in-show goes to the late Mark Lombardi, who obsessed mightily over international political and financial scandals, creating huge diagrams where lines arc toward the mysteries of conspiracy. Arrows are drawn from the names of Edward Heath, Alexander Haig and Wei Jiafu toward a circle signifying "China Ocean Shipping Co." Lombardi's diagrams are eerily beautiful, the way evil and corruption often are.
The myth that the French are great lovers was built on the divinely sordid works of these men and women. And nowhere can you find as many great examples of the classic Dirty French Novel as you will in the front window of Subterranean Books. That's right: As you peruse that copy of Miracle of The Rose (dude, prison sex is hot!), passersby can clearly see you and what you are. Even better, Subterranean will gladly order any of the tomes missing from your collection, so you need not go without the beautiful and brutal Chants of Maldoror just because it's not in stock. Old Mr. Comstock would roll over in his grave at the thought of these classics' being freely available despite all his efforts, but his turgid member keeps him propped sideways in his coffin, like a bike on a kickstand -- which is just the sort of thing the Comte de Lautréamont wanted you to think about when he wrote Maldoror, which is why you should read it.
The myth that the French are great lovers was built on the divinely sordid works of these men and women. And nowhere can you find as many great examples of the classic Dirty French Novel as you will in the front window of Subterranean Books. That's right: As you peruse that copy of Miracle of The Rose (dude, prison sex is hot!), passersby can clearly see you and what you are. Even better, Subterranean will gladly order any of the tomes missing from your collection, so you need not go without the beautiful and brutal Chants of Maldoror just because it's not in stock. Old Mr. Comstock would roll over in his grave at the thought of these classics' being freely available despite all his efforts, but his turgid member keeps him propped sideways in his coffin, like a bike on a kickstand -- which is just the sort of thing the Comte de Lautréamont wanted you to think about when he wrote Maldoror, which is why you should read it.